The Market Report

Key Food Marketplace Owner: Tony Diaz Opened: 2023 Previous Tenants:  CVS Cooperative:  Key Food Stores Location:  185 Exchange St, Chicopee, MA Photographed:  November 20, 2023 Just a few blocks over from the longtime Fruit Fair Supermarket in Chicopee is this newcomer, a Key Food that opened in August 2023. The roughly 16,000 square foot store takes the spot of a former CVS, and it's possible that before CVS, or possibly the Family Dollar at the other end of the strip mall, was originally a supermarket. Inside, the store looks a lot like the Key Food we recently saw in Holyoke , although we can tell the bones are a little nicer and newer because the store's renovation was more extensive. Produce is in the first aisle, with meat and a service butcher counter (which I don't believe Holyoke has) on the back wall. Dairy and frozen are on the left side of the store, with deli and bakery in the front left corner. Obviously, everything in this store is new, since the s...

Fruit Fair Owner: Samaita and Jared Newell Opened:  1936 Cooperative:  none Location:  398 Front St, Chicopee, MA Photographed: November 20, 2023 This Fruit Fair must be one of the longest continuously-operating supermarkets in Massachusetts! The store dates back to 1936 (although this building was likely constructed in the 1960s), and up until 1936, it was owned by Alvin H. Phillips, who according to Groceteria owned quite a few stores in Chicopee. The store is a Chicopee institution, although it's only been owned by the current owners since 2021 . And they've been working on modernizing and improving the store, too -- including adding a greenhouse on the supermarket's roof! The old-school interior has been updated with new flooring and fixtures, but the feeling is still of an old-fashioned independent supermarket. It's very pleasant and very slow-paced. There's an entrance and exit at each end of the L-shaped store. In the short part of the L is produce and a f...

Original Grocery Tenant: A&P Address: 499 Montgomery St, Chicopee, MA Opened:  1958 Closed:  unknown Later Tenants:  U-Haul storage Photographed:  November 20, 2023 That's a centennial A&P peeking out from behind the rows of U-Haul storage bays! This store, of around 14,500 square feet, was built in 1958, making it one of the earliest centennial stores. I don't believe anyone has an accurate count of just how many centennial stores there were across the country, but it must have been in the hundreds. There are so many still standing , although relatively few are still supermarkets. One, in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield just five miles southeast, is today a Key Food . We're in the northern section of Chicopee, where there are multiple chain supermarkets on Memorial Drive (a Price Rite, a Big Y, and a Stop & Shop), but our next two stops are in downtown Chicopee!